A monastery located within a Mukdahan national park is facing eviction - despite a recent ministerial leniency policy - following some elaborate construction and extended encroachment.
The Phu Mai Hao monastery has been given an eviction notice by the Phu Pha Yon national park managment because it does not qualify for leniency, park director Yongyuth Chamnarnrob said.
Yongyuth said the Phu Mai Hao monastery had violated forestry laws on several counts - including three cases of unauthorised logging in 2004 and 2007, and an unauthorised explosion in a cave earlier this year. Before another unauthorised logging operation was detected, many installations had been constructed, including waterworks and power-generating systems, as well as a 700-metre stairway.
He said the park had received calls from villagers who vowed to campaign against the eviction.
Kasemsant Jinnawaso, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the eviction could be delayed. "Due to a new ministerial policy that permits monasteries to stay on in forest reserves, a further wait in the process for a way out is needed," he added.
There are now 5,529 monasteries built on forest reserves nationwide, including 66 set to face eviction before the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry announced a leniency policy last month.
The ministry yesterday appointed two members to serve on a national panel, comprising ministry officials and monastic and lay members of the Sangha Supreme Council, tasked with solving the problem. The two new members are Kasemsant and Chalermphorn Phirunsarn, secretary-general of the Agricultural Land Reform Office.
In yesterday's Cabinet meeting, deputy government spokesman Phumin Leetheeraprasert said the prime minister wanted media publicity for the issue so that Buddhists and monks understood the government's policy to peacefully solve the problem regarding monasteries in forest reserves in a lenient way.
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